BMP 1: Part 3 – Preshade and base coat

Quick post on the first painting steps. After priming the model using Tamiya’s can primer I have applied first coat of Tamiya Dark Green as a preshade instead of usual black(ish) colour, just to keep the tone closer to the following paint coats.

For the base coat I have been looking for the right shade of green for some time. After all the troubles I had with finding the right shade of olive drab for the Pershing (which I did not find at the end) I decided to look for inspiration in the magazines and finally went with the mix used by Mike Rinaldi for his beautiful T-62 in May 2011 issue of Model Military magazine. The mix is 50% Flat Green, 30% Sky and 20% Flat Yellow (all Tamiya). I like this shade as it has a worn out look of older machine, but still keeps some vibrancy of the colour.